Charles Wright

Athlete

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Charles Wright is a semi-retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his tenure with the World Wrestling Federation throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, where he performed under the ring names Sir Charles, Papa Shango, Kama, Kama Mustafa, and The Godfather. Among other accolades, Wright is a two-time USWA Unified World Heavyweight Champion, a one-time WWF Intercontinental Champion, and a one-time WWF Tag Team Champion (with Bull Buchanan). He headlined Saturday Night's Main Event XXXI, against Bret Hart for the WWF Championship.

In January 1992, Charles Wright was repackaged as Papa Shango, a voodoo practitioner with an appearance reminiscent of the Loa Baron Samedi. The character debuted on the February 8, 1992 edition of Superstars, defeating enhancement talent Dale Wolfe. The character carried a skull to the ring billowing smoke and could control arena lights, allowing for strange goings on in the ring, and later could "cast spells" to cause opponents pain and to make them vomit from afar. Papa Shango was thrust into the spotlight almost immediately, running in on the Hulk Hogan vs. Sid Justice main event at WrestleMania VIII to jump start a feud between himself and Ultimate Warrior. Shango actually missed his cue to run in, hitting the ring late. The finish was supposed to be Sid getting disqualified because of Shango breaking up the pinfall attempt by Hogan after he hit the big legdrop. However, due to Shango getting to the ring late, Sid was forced to kick out of the legdrop to save face. Sid's manager, Harvey Wippleman then jumped on the apron, and the referee signalled for the disqualification at that point as Shango was just getting to the ring. Shango was then involved in a feud with the Ultimate Warrior in the late spring of 1992, where he would cast voodoo spells on his opponent. Despite numerous segments being shown on TV every week (Warrior vomiting, inexplicably bleeding,...), the angle went nowhere, as Warrior challenged Macho Man Randy Savage for the WWF Championship, apparently forgetting about Shango. When Shango was finally set to have a match with Warrior in November 92, Warrior was released from WWF. However, Shango received a title shot against new champion Bret Hart on Saturday Night's Main Event, but was unsuccessful. Wright's final PPV appearance as the Papa Shango character was at the 1993 Royal Rumble (where he was eliminated in under 30 seconds). Shango was seen infrequently on WWF TV afterwards, and following a loss to Jim Duggan in a 1993 King of the Ring qualifying match, he made two final televised appearances against enhancement talent in June and July 1993.

Subject ID: 73233

Wright was asked to return in 1997, with the original plans being for him to revive the Papa Shango character, but that plan was never completed with the inception of Kane, another supernatural character. Instead he returned as Kama, now billed under his full name, Kama Mustafa, with less emphasis on his shoot fighting background. He was placed into the Nation of Domination, which was in the process of becoming an all black group and on the verge of feuding with the all white Disciples of Apocalypse as well as the all Latino group Los Boricuas; the latter two groups were part of the Nation of Domination at one point and all three feuded with each other as part of a "gang warfare" angle the WWF came up with. Mustafa became increasingly known as "The Godfather" of the Nation, a moniker which would eventually become his official ring name in 1998. He stood with the Nation when Rocky Maivia became the leader shortly after Wrestlemania XIV, standing with Maivia (who officially became The Rock around that time), Mark Henry, D'Lo Brown, and later Owen Hart after he joined the stable in the summer of 1998.

In 1998, The Godfather (known to wrestlers as a genuine tough guy) competed in the WWF Brawl for All; which was a strictly voluntary boxing/shoot fighting competition, eventually won by Bart Gunn. On a July 27 episode of RAW is WAR, Wright debuted his "Ho's", during a tag-match, with Nation member Mark Henry against The Road Warriors.

Subject ID: 73233

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Subject ID: 73233